The first passenger train service between Beijing and Pyongyang was to resume yesterday, ending a six-year gap, as China moves to shore up cross-border infrastructure and rebuild ties with its neighbor.
Train K27 is to arrive in the North Korean capital at 6:07pm today, after a journey of 24 hours and 41 minutes, skirting north of the Bohai Sea with a stopover in the border city of Dandong, the Chinese Ministry of Railways said.
China and North Korea are “friendly neighbors” and a cross-border passenger train service facilitates people-to-people exchanges, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told reporters.
Photo: AFP
China also backs stronger communication between both sides to ease such exchanges, they added.
The service was suspended when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020.
North Korea is mostly closed to foreign tourism, with few exceptions, largely for Russian tour groups under restricted arrangements, travel agencies organizing trips to the country say.
Photo: AFP
The service linking the capitals would operate four days a week in both directions, running on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, China’s railway ministry said in a notice.
Tickets, restricted to business visa holders, were sold out for yesterday’s trip, but those for Wednesday next week were still available, a Beijing travel agency said.
The shorter Dandong-Pyongyang link would operate daily in both directions, with the first service that left China’s northeastern city of Dandong at 10am yesterday to arrive in Pyongyang at 6:07pm, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The resumption of the train link symbolized a return to a stronger bilateral relationship, said Lim Tai Wei (林大偉), a professor and East Asia expert at Japan’s Soka University.
It signaled greater access to “the largest trading nation on Earth” for North Korea, while it was also important for China’s “periphery diplomacy,” Lim said.
However, while the resumption suggests a “re-normalization” of contact between China and North Korea, it does not necessarily mean increased support from Beijing, National University of Singapore associate professor of political science Chong Ja Ian (莊嘉穎) said.
“A lot of the previous limit on contact seems to be due to Pyongyang’s apprehensions about broader contact, which have diminished,” Chong.
Additional reporting by AFP
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